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Emboldened Turkey Pushes Deeper Into Syria, But Risks Abound

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After two months of uncertain fighting, Turkey appears suddenly to be riding high in its military campaign to take control of a larger piece of northern Syria.

Along the border, studded with spring flowers and pistachio and olive groves, the artillery guns and fighter jets that until recently pounded the low mountains have fallen silent since Turkish forces captured the enclave of Afrin last weekend.

The victory has been widely celebrated in Turkey and has further emboldened President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has vowed to take his campaign across northern Syria and even into Iraq.

Yet the road ahead for Turkey in Syria is uncertain and fraught with risks.

The deepening inroads of Turkey and its allies have been tolerated so far by the two powers that control Syria’s airspace, Russia and the United States. But Turkey may yet meet resistance if it pushes much further.

There is every risk that Turkey, which has a less than illustrious history dealing with its Kurdish population, could find itself embroiled in a guerrilla war in Syria, an extension of its decades’ old battle against the Kurdish insurgency at home led by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K…